Thanks to the Meriter Hospital staff for touching our lives in such a special way.

My pregnancy due date was March 10, 2008, but during the last couple of weeks of my pregnancy, I had already visited the triage twice because of what seemed like very real "false labor" contractions. My pregnancy had been a little hard because I had almost all of the discomforts that one hears come with pregnancy and then some, like a threatened miscarriage early on, and PUPPS (an itchy rash) toward the 35th week, but nothing extremely significant to worry about such as preeclampsia or strep infection or so many other things that can go wrong.

By the 37th week, I was READY. On Saturday March 1, after a day with contractions coming on and off just as it had been lately for me, at about 9:30 p.m., my water broke as I was walking toward the bathroom at my house. My husband and I headed for the hospital. Contractions weren’t too strong at that point.

We arrived and I was kept in the triage while labor progressed. When they first checked me, I was at 3 to 4 centimeters. Things went fast, and pain became stronger and stronger. I was taken to my room, and my nurse, Lou, did everything possible to make me feel comfortable. I ended up getting in the bathtub to ease the pain. When I got out of the bathtub, the pain was really intense. I got checked and I was already at 5 centimeters.

I asked for an epidural. The wait seemed very long because of the pain, but the anesthesiologist actually made it in a very timely manner. Everybody, my nurse, the doctor on call, the anesthesiologist, they were all very friendly and supportive. The epidural was a good thing to have. I was able to talk and felt relieved after I got it. Just an hour after that I started to feel the pressure like I had to push. The nurse came and I was fully dilated and ready to push. I pushed for 39 minutes!

My daughter was born on Sunday March 2, at 3:19 a.m. My beautiful girl was 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and 19” long. I held her and fed her right away. I was in heaven. Everything about her was perfect. I spent all Sunday with her by my side, and had a lot of visitors who were impressed by the staff at Meriter and their courtesy, and everything offered to us.

My little girl was doing fine with her breastfeeding, but she was spitting up a lot. She had frothy white bubbles and when we asked, the nurses and the doctor said that most likely she had swallowed a big amount of amniotic fluid that she needed to get rid of, something that happens to babies sometimes.

Things were going okay, and we kept on suctioning her to help her get rid of the fluid, but it was never over. I talked to doctors, and they took her to the nursery and did a couple of x-rays that didn’t show any problems.

Monday morning, after I fed her, she had a really hard time when she spit up. She turned blue, so I called the nurse. They took her once again to the nursery to deep suction her, but they weren’t able to get the tube in all the way. Something was wrong. A doctor came and tried to get the tube in, but it was going in a little way and then curling up and coming back out.

They did a couple of other x-rays, and after a while we got the bad news. My daughter’s esophagus was not connected to her stomach, but was connected to her trachea, a condition called Esophageal Atresia with Tracheo -Esophageal Fistula (TEF for short).  Surgery was scheduled for 4 p.m. that same day. I was really scared. My husband was a great husband, tried to comfort me all the way, and kept the pieces together at all times.

After that, my daughter was admitted to the NICU. Everything was happening so fast. Once again, Meriter’s staff was there to help us through. Looking back at how things happened, I have such a good feeling about the nurses and doctors we got to meet and how they made us feel like they cared all the time.

Surgery went great. It was performed by Dr. Lund. His credentials are excellent. He’s a great surgeon and a great person. He not only he saved my daughter’s life, but mine and my husbands, too.

Amelia had a good recovery. She is a strong little girl. It was so hard for mommy to see her going through so much. The tubes, the pain she was in ... it all was the scariest thing I have been through. Just remembering makes my heart hurt so bad. Every day had its good news, but I couldn’t wait for it to end. A lot of prayer and support from family and friends made a big difference.

All of the medical staff being there for us, explaining things, being so knowledgeable and friendly, that all was a blessing for us. I got discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, but I didn’t want to go anywhere without my little one. They accommodated us into Amelia’s room in the NICU. Nurses were constantly asking me how I myself was doing after delivery and caring for me, for us, in a special way. From the surgeon, the nurses, the doctors and the residents, to the receptionists, housekeepers and the people who delivered room service for us, everybody deserves a special mention for their work and their way of caring.

Amelia will have a very special story to tell when she grows up, about her first days of life. While in the NICU she was being cared for the best doctors and nurses. She got her first haircut while there (she was born with a lot of hair!) and one of her mom’s favorite nurses, Patricia, made a memento for us to keep. She also had an episode were she stopped breathing, but the team acted fast, and she is all good and that is just a bad memory surrounded by too many good ones already. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad will share this story of hope for those going through a tough time, on how God put us in the right place at the right time.

Thanks to all of you who made a difference in our lives.

Clara